


Rainstorm Renegotiations

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Fluff, M/M, Rain, a sad lack of sloppy makeouts, palhonchopartnerspritship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-11
Updated: 2011-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and Karkat walk home in the rain. Based off a picture from Deviantart (link inside)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rainstorm Renegotiations

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was based off of this picture here~ http://eiose.deviantart.com/art/c-completely-platonic-257979492 Go look at it before you read! It's worth your tiiiiiiiime~

"Aww, it's raining!" John pulls his face away from the cold window, pausing to draw something inane on the frosted surface his breath has left behind, and you wrinkle your nose in disgust. It had been cloudy but perfectly dry outside when John had dragged you over to Rose's and Kanaya's for the afternoon, spouting some nonsense about 'socialization' and how you shouldn't be sitting inside in front of your husktop all day, enjoy the fresh outdoors!

And then he'd sneezed, a remnant of the horrible bout of flu he's still recovering from, and you'd slammed the lid of your husktop down with a growl. "You can't be fucking serious. You're not going to walk two fucking miles to go visit those snarky broads, and I'm not going to deal with inevitable fucking piles of horseshit that'll be lying around!"

"But Karkaaaaaaaat!" Gogdamnit, how could someone enunciate _eight_ letters of the same fucking vowel?! You had swung your chair around, glare fully in place, and were greeted by the one thing you couldn't stand up to- Egbert making those _fucking_ puppy-dog eyes at you. "If you come with me I won't have to walk it alone! And I'm sure Kanaya would love to see you!"

That gave you pause, and was your downfall- before you knew it Egbert had his hand clamped around your wrist and was dragging you (vigorously, and with great enthusiasm) outside and down the road.

To be honest, you were pleased at the opportunity to see your moirail. She and Rose had been too busy to socialize much these past few weeks, making custom costumes for the upcoming holiday performance at the college you all went to, and John being sick meant that you'd barely left his side.

Just because you didn't feel like having the fucker die in the apartment you shared. No other reason.

He sneezes again in the present, drawing you away from your thoughts as Rose catches his arm and drags him back over to the couch. "I am assuming that you neglected to bring umbrellas," she drawls, giving you a hard look, and you glare right back.

"Of course we didn't bring any fucking umbrellas- it wasn't raining when we left!" you snap, grinding your teeth together as Rose settles John on the couch across from you and pushes a mug of steaming green tea into his hands. He makes an adorkable grimace (you wince as you realize what you've just thought) and sips at it reluctantly.

"Can't you put any sugar in this?" he pleads, but Rose shakes her head with the smallest of smiles.

"I'm afraid not. For the tea to have the best effect, you have to drink it plain."

"But Rose! I told you already, I'm feeling totally fine!"

"Yeah-" you cut in with a growl. "He doesn't need any of your hippie bluh bluh bluh cures, we've got Gamzee for that shit. Besides, it's getting dark," you add, looking at the clock, "and we still have to walk home in this shittastic weather." Your gaze drifts back to John as you speak, noting the dark circles still under his eyes and the way he's starting to yawn and sink back into the cushions a little more.

You feel a hand brush your shoulder before ruffling your hair and you sigh involuntarily, tilting your head back into the soothing touch the slightest bit. Kanaya gives a low chuckle behind you, nails gently scritching your head in a gesture invisible to the two humans on the other couch. "Karkat, will you accompany me to the kitchen?" she asks in her low, warm voice, giving your hair a gentle tug to inform you that the question mark is only a courtesy and you grumble as you heave yourself up.

She's got a small bowl of grubcorn on the counter and you immediately snatch it, popping a few kernels into your mouth as you sit down at the table. "Rose has been quite worried about the state of her moirail," Kanaya begins without further ado, bustling around the kitchen area like the fucking housewife she plays at being. "As I have about mine. Have you slept at all since John became ill?"

You have to think about this for a few moments, which brings an irritated click from her. "A little," you admit after a bit, "but not in my 'coon. Egbert gets even more idiotic when he's sick, and nobody else is around to keep a fucking eye on him."

"Hallucinating about the game?" she guesses adeptly, and you sigh and rub your temples.

"Yeah. It got worse when he took those gogdamned sedatives you brought over, too." Bad enough that he was trying to use the Windy Thing, and nearly broke everything in the room before you managed to get in there to calm him down. Kanaya breaks you out of your thought process by setting a box of human tea in front of you.

"Rose was thinking that perhaps this would help somewhat. According to her, humans can occasionally drink mixtures of plant material that soothe them." Her tone is somewhat puzzled and you're gratified by that, because you sure as hell have no clue how that works. "Anyway. Nepeta let us borrow some umbrellas from her the last time we visited. I am sure she would not mind if you and John had a turn with them."

Something in her voice makes you turn and frown, but she's already heading back into the other room, and you ate all the grubcorn while you were listening, so you scoop the box up and follow her.

The sight that greets your eyes literally stops you in your tracks.

John, thankfully, is already up and dressed to leave, but has what looks like a solid mile of coral-and-white striped scarf wound around his neck. His eyes are barely visible above the mound of fabric and he looks a little abashed, but is thanking Rose for the monstrosity. Kanaya pushes an umbrella into your hand- you don't even look at it as you stomp to the door, calling back that you're _leaving, now,_ and that if Egbert doesn't get his scrawny ass to the door within the next ten seconds you'll be leaving _without him._

He's there in five, and out and unfolding his borrowed umbrella before Kanaya gives you a goodbye hug.

You wince as you see the kitty ears unfold as the umbrella is pushed into shape. Thank gog it''ll be dark enough that nobody will see you walking with these monstrousities.

Predictably, Egbert is overexcited about your matching umbrellas, babbling at a mindnumbing speed, and you don't listen to a word of it. You're busy focusing on the rain sheeting down around you, and the way your breath puffs out in a cloud every time you exhale, and just _when_ did it get so cold?

You don't notice you're shivering until John grabs your wrist. "Karkat? You okay?"

"F-fine." You grind your teeth together to stop them from chattering. It's fucking October! Why in fuck's sake is it so cold!?

His hand stays where it is. "You didn't get a chance to grab a jacket before I dragged you out of the house, did I?" You wince at how soft and guilty his voice sounds, turning your head to glare at him (although the effect is ruined when your teeth start chattering again.)

"Said I'm fine, f-fuckass." With that matter out of the way you move forward again, but are once again stopped by the touch of his hand on your wrist.

"Hold on, Karkat!" His voice is muffled a bit and you turn with a snarl- only to see him starting to unwind the ridiculous scarf from around his neck. "Here! You can use this- and I know it won't be as good as a jacket, but maybe it'll help a bit?"

"..... I'm not wearing that."

Of course, Egbert never takes no for a fucking answer, and three minutes later you've worked out some sort of ridiculous compromise- half the scarf is around your neck, and half around his.

You refuse to acknowledge that it does indeed help, and take a few quick steps forward to try and get away from this whole embarrassing mess. John squeaks behind you and you hear him stumble as the scarf tightens on both of your necks. "Oh, for _fucks sake!_ " you snarl in complete and total frustration and yank him closer, throwing your arm around his shoulders as he looks up in surprise.

"K-karkat?"

"Look, idiot, it's either this or we're both gonna be choking ourselves this entire walk home. Just walk."

He does, in silence. You manage to tilt your umbrella just right so that it's not crashing into Johns and you're not getting soaked. After a few minutes of awkward silence his arm slips around your back, helping to regulate your steps even more, and you swear up, down and turnways inside your head that the flush of heat going to your cheeks didn't exist.

The first mile is silent, and slow. The streetlights are spaced irregularly, but close enough together that you can see the road. John hums something inane under his breath, and you can't help but watch the small puffs of steam as they escape.

......You really need to stop staring at his lips.

You fail miserably at this, and when John turns to look at you you whip your head up and pretend you were staring at the road the entire time.

He stops walking, and you have to too. "Karkat...." he says in a low voice. "Thanks for taking care of me when I was sick....."

You grunt in response.

"No, really... I think I would've been in pretty bad shape if you weren't there for me!" He's got one of those ridiculous smiles plastered onto his face again.

"Fuck, Egbert, it's not my fault if you're even _more_ fucking pitiable than usual when you're not even capable of getting out of fucking bed on your own!" you snap without thinking about it, and John tenses under your arm, the smallest of gasps escaping him.

 **  
_Fuck._   
**

".....You pity me?" His voice is wary now, and stupidly hopeful. "In... in the troll way, right? Not the human way?"

Fuck fuck fuck, there's no way you can answer this without making a complete _moron_ of yourself, is there? Oh, he's still talking.

"-told you I'm not a homosexual, Karkat-" is all you hear before your stupid mutant blood turns to ice in your veins. Yes, he's told you this before, but with some of the things he was saying when he was feverish and exhausted-

"M-maybe.... is there some sort of ...... palhonchopartnerspritship quadrant or something?" he finishes in a rush, and suddenly everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

"Palhonchopartnerspritship." Your voice is blank, and he looks up at you nervously, but he must see something in your face, because he's squeezing up tighter against you with the most derpy, adorkable beaming smile in this universe. "Egbert, that is the _stupidest_ thing I have _ever_ heard come out of your foodflap. Yeah, I think we can make that work."

He drops his umbrella and flings both arms around your chest, and the only thing you can think about is how glad you are that you un-banned sloppy interspecies makeouts before now.


End file.
